Earthquake Rocks Iran

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran - A powerful earthquake shook central Iran on Tuesday, destroying villages, cutting power to the area, killing at least 500 people and injuring more than 330, state-run television reported.

TV footage showed a village in Kerman province almost flattened by the 6.4-magnitude earthquake, with few mud-built walls standing. Residents were shown digging frantically amid collapsed slabs of concrete and piles of dirt in a bid to find buried friends and relatives. "All hospitals in Zarand are filled to capacity with the injured. Hospitals in the town cannot receive any more of the injured," the broadcast said, showing images of elderly women and men lying on beds with various injuries.

The epicenter of the quake, which struck at 5:55 a.m., was on the outskirts of Zarand, a town 35 miles northwest of Kerman, the capital of Kerman province, the seismological base of Tehran University's Geophysics Institute. "The death toll has increased to 175. And more than 330 people have been injured," the television quoted Kerman provincial governor Mohammad Ali Karimi as saying.

Karimi was also quoted as saying that "several villages have been destroyed" by the earthquake. Rain was reportedly hampering rescue efforts. The villages of Hotkan, Khanook, Motaharabad and Islamabad were the worst hit villages, it said.

The television quoted the governor of Zarand, identified only as Rashidi, as saying that power in the region has been disrupted. He said medical and other supplies were needed, especially medicine, syringes and tents. Zarand, 600 miles southeast of the capital Tehran, is a small town in Kerman Province with a population of about 15,000 people.

A provincial official said still there was no accurate picture of the depth of the catastrophe but said the quake was not as bad as a killer quake that hit a nearby region in December 2003. That magnitude-6.6 quake flattened the historic southeastern city of Bam in the same region, killing 26,000 people. Iran is located on seismic fault lines and is prone to earthquakes. It experiences at least one slight earthquake everyday on average.

Live pictures on Iranian television Tuesday showed ambulances carrying the dead and injured and survivors sitting next to the dead slapping their faces and striking their head in grief. Pictures also included many mud-built houses not damaged in villages near the quake. People were also showed with bloodied clothes and broken legs and hands on hospital beds. Residents in a village stood next to their devastated houses asking for help to rescue their beloved buried under the rubble.

"What a catastrophe. Please help us," said one of the survivors.